Nobody

Chapter One

Before.

She opened her eyes. Blackness. Bodies surrounded her in unconscious heaps. She lay on her back, ice blue eyes staring at the ceiling, blonde hair circling her face. She wet her dry pink lips, her throat was sore from thirst. She lay there, silently, soundlessly soaking in her surroundings, her senses seeming more alert in the nothingness. Not a single movement, not a single breath. This could not be earth.

Earth.

It hit her like a hard punch to the stomach, knocking the air out of her as the memories flooded into her brain. Who she was. Where she was. Where she was going. She tried to suppress the gasp but it was too painful to hold it in. Her icy eyes filled with fear.

They knew she was awake.

She closed her eyes, remembering, watching her life float passed her eyelids. Soon, there would be nothing to remember. She heard the creek of the vents as they opened, releasing the undetectable chemical that would change her life in a way unimaginable. The thick gas poured out, gushed all over the room, sucking the consciousness out of her, seeping into her skin. She knew she didn't have much time. She tried to keep who she was in her mind.

"You are brave. You are from earth. Not Avventura. You are not one of them." These were the softly spoken words she told herself. "You are not one of them. You are your person. You will never be one of them, ever!" Her voice got louder in tension as she detected the chemical growing stronger. It sloshed the memories down her brain, into the nothingness like the room around her. The medicine was thick on her tongue, suffocating her unspoken words. They never reached her lips.

Desperately, she thought of the one thing that would remind her who she was, the one being who held her heart. The one man who kept her alive without even knowing it. The one who would never know. She tried to muster his name, tried to remember, but only a small gargling noise emitted from the back of her closing throat. He would never know. It was too late.

Blackness closed in.

Centuries from the time you are reading this now, earth and everything in it are suffocating, failing, receding from life.

Our planet filled with pollution, and the air hung over the people in thick sheets of smoke heavy as mustard, nearly impossible to breathe. It scarred your throat, and soon enough each unnecessary syllable, each tiny breath became a crime, wasting good air. Schools, shops, churches, all shut down. Air conditioners and heaters were confiscated. People would drop on the streets, suffocating, dying.

Nobody could help. Nobody tried.

Thousands of solutions were thought up to try and stop the human race from dying off completely, but there was almost nothing left to make that happen.

The oceans began to dry up and plants were dying. Earth was a brown ball of withering souls, driven mad by the need to survive. Water was scarce, expensive, and rarely drunk. All other beverages and most salty and dry foods were banned for the aching thirst in your throat after consuming them. Everything started wilting, jobs were terminated like the lives of innocent people. And for an unexplainable reason, everything just fell apart. But that's life, isn't it? One second your cruising along, enjoying every bit of the ride, and then, suddenly, it just stops.

People were dying everywhere, about 50 souls were taken every minute. People would watch the clock, the slow rhythmic beat and think; one dead, two dead, three, four. On and on and on and on.

Everything was being taken from them. Their possessions. They're family. Friends. True love. Hope.

Nothing left. Nobody left. Nobody.